tubechallenge.com

Most people know of Elephant and Castle, and know what your talking about. Some however, abbreviate this to Elephant, or even just Castle.

The other day I was discussing the metropolitan line with a non-tube enthusiast, Chalfont and Latimer came up, carrying on with the conversation, I didn't realise he understood Chalfont as one station and Latimer as another! Has this ever happened to you?

As a result I propose the following stations to be part of an alternative tube challenge:

Chalfont and Latimer
Harrow and Wealdstone
Elephant and Castle (LU and NR)
Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3
Hayes and Harlington (EL)
King's Cross and St. Pancras International
Highbury and Islington
Caledonian Road and Barnsbury (LO)
Finchley Road and Frognal (LO)
Elstree and Borehamwood (TL)
Totteridge and Whetstone
Great Portland Street or Dalston Kingsland or Wandle Park or Shortlands or Island Gardens or Sandliands (at a mega stretch??)
*I'm only including stations on the Dec23 Tube Map, but using every mode to build up the list into something worth doing

The stations are extremely spread out, unlike many other challenges, it would take a rather long time to complete, however strategy would be key, scheduling EL, TL, or perhaps Chiltern (Same track rule) trains, perhaps making this rather competetive.

Basically, you could say that you visited Chalfont and Latimer and Harrow and Wealdstone and Elephant and Castle and Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3 and Hayes and Harlington and King's Cross and St. Pancras International and Highbury and Islington and Caledonian Road and Barnsbury and Finchley Road and Frognal and Elstree and Borehamwood and Totteridge and Whetstone in one day. Completely confusing all your other friends, who would assume that you've been to 22 stations instead of 11. While puzzling at your choice of using polysyndeton to list them.

I'm thinking to start @ Chalfont and Latimer, and finish @ T&W. I'll probably attempt this in April.

Any additional thoughts, complaints, or suggestions, would be greatly appreciated.

Updates: added Dalston Kingsland (LO), added Wandle Park (LT), added Shortlands (TL), added Island Gardens, added Sandilands

I would quibble about Kings Cross St. Pancras as it doesn't have an and. You may well end up there anyway, but I wouldn't have thought it should be included.

Have fun when you do it though.

al wrote: ↑07 Mar 2024, 20:00 I would quibble about Kings Cross St. Pancras as it doesn't have an and. You may well end up there anyway, but I wouldn't have thought it should be included.

Thanks, I thought the same initially, but found according to the tube map that its 'King's Cross & St. Pancras International' <- I have had to define it by how its shown on the tube map to have one standard approach. The same problem arises on other challenges such as the alphabet challenge whether 'London Victoria' or 'London Blackfiars', or any other terminus could be visited, to count for the 'L'. Looking at my older tube maps, I can see that the '&' was first introduced for KXX on the December 2020 map, alebit the same time that Thameslink was introduced.

I'm still considering whether I should include GPS or Dalston Kingsland, I feel that they might spoil the "roundness" of the list.

An interesting challenge, though I'm slightly surprised there are so few "&" stations!

I've just had a quick look at the map and think I've come up with a route. (Start at C&L, finish at H2&3). GPS and DK extend the route slightly, as possibly does KC&SPI, but none of these significantly - the most awkward stations are Elephant & Castle x2!

One slight downside to the challenge is that Chalfont & Latimer is outside Zone 6 so it can't be done on a National Rail Travelcard.

How about enforcing an excursion to use the Waterloo and Ciry and Hammersmith and City lines at least one? It would make the challenge quite unique.

Tried the challenge last friday, I was quite suprised how many different permutations I found for the route, all with the same ideal finishing time of 3hours 45minuites.

I ammended my rules to include only stations served by tfl modes in the criteria, as well as enforcing the use of the H&C and W&C lines.

My route was thus:

1. 1045p2 s/b Chiltern Railways: Chalfont & Latimer to Harrow-On-The-Hill
2. Bus 340/140/182/258: Harrow Bus Station to Harrow & Wealdstone Station
3. 1117 s/b Bakerloo/LO: Harrow & Wealdstone to Willesden Junction
4. e/b LO: Willesden Junction to Highbury & Islington (via Finchley Road & Frognal and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury)
5. s/b Victoria: Highbury & Islington to Finsbury Park
6. n/b Piccadilly: Finsbury Park to Arnos Grove
7. Bus 34/251: Arnos Grove Bus Stand to Totteridge & Whetstone Station
8. s/b Northern: Totteridge & Whetstone to King’s Cross & St. Pancras
9. e/b Hammersmith & City: King’s Cross & St. Pancras to Moorgate
10. s/b Northern: Moorgate to Bank
11. w/b Waterloo & City: Bank to Waterloo
12. s/b Bakerloo: Waterloo to Elephant & Castle
13. n/b Bakerloo: Elephant & Castle to Waterloo
14. n/b Jubilee: Waterloo to Bond Street
15. w/b Elizabeth: Bond Street to Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 (via Hayes & Harlington)

Notable Mentions:

1. Chiltern train departed on time. Got in the wrong door for the 4 car train for HOTH. I assumed it was a 3 car.
2. Had a depressing 5 min wait for the 140 Bus
3. I only managed the 1123 Bakerloo line service
4. Hampered 5 min by a 'Not in Service' LO train
5. Perfect connection
6. 1 min wait at Finsbury Park
7. 5 min wait for the bus
8. Perfect connection onto a rare Tooting Broadway service via Bank
9. Perfect connection onto a H&C train saved about 10 min of waiting (The line was running with minor delays)
10. Almost caught the same Tooting Broadway service, but doors shut infront of my nose
11. 1 min wait in the W&C train before it departed
12. An infuritating 5 min wait for a Waterloo Terminating train to be detrained
13. Double back failed by 15 sec, had to wait on the same train (and almost missed the train whilst changing door positions at Lambeth North)
14. Mediocre Connection
15. Caught a T4 service with 1 min to spare.

Final time: 03:52:16 (I calculated a perfect of 03:45:00, in reality looking back, a 03:30:00 wouldn't be impossible).

AND be prepared to have a very awkward conversation with Heathrow Express staff about how you last tapped in at T&W, if you bother to take the express service.